Summary:   This timeline chronicles substance abuse in the United States. Learn about alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse from colonial days to modern times.
Subjects:  Addicts, Alcoholics, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Medication abuse, Drug addicts, Narcotic habit, Solvent abuse, Tobacco habit, Caffeine habit, Drug abuse, Testing, Drug abuse, Timeline, Narcotics, Control of, Timeline

Summary:  In sports, doping refers to the use of drugs or blood products to enhance an athlete's performance. This article provides a timeline of important events in the history of doping in sports.
Subjects:  Amphetamines, Anabolic steroids, Athletes, Drug use, Baseball players, Cyclists, Doping in sports, Drug abuse, Scandals, Steroid drugs, Steroids, Track and field athletes, Drug abuse, Testing, Doping in sports, Timeline, Drug abuse, Timeline, Drug testing, Timeline, Drug abuse, Testing, Timeline

Summary:   "In 1988, sprinter Ben Johnson was disqualified after winning 100-metre Olympic gold because a rival supposedly spiked his water bottle. As explanations go, it was lame--as plausible as Tiger Woods headed to the driving range when he crashed his Escalade at 2 a.m. Yet despite the messiness and the furor Johnson created, sparking a royal commission and passionate national hand-wringing, we were forever changed by it. We grew up, lost our sense of virginity and reversed the ratio--long on rhetoric but short on action--to become world leaders in the anti-doping movement." (Vancouver Sun) In this article, the author discusses the strides that Canada has made in the fight against doping in sports since the Ben Johnson scandal.
Subjects:  Athletes, Canada, Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Johnson, Ben, Sports, Canada, Sports, Corrupt practices, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "Newer workplace drug tests using hair samples reveal 10 times as many job applicants and employees taking cocaine and methamphetamine than had been found in urine tests. Quest Diagnostics today will release hair data for the first time that show that in the first half of 2009 cocaine was found in three of every 1,000 urine tests performed on job applicants and employees, whereas hair testing found cocaine in 32 of 1,000. For every 1,000 tests, methamphetamine showed up once in urine and nine times in hair." (USA Today) This article discusses the effectiveness of hair drug testing, noting that "hair tests reveal far more drug users because they show a pattern going back three months, whereas urine tests are better at finding recent one-time use, but only drugs taken within the previous one to three days."
Subjects:  Drug abuse, Drug abuse, Statistics, Drugs and employment, Employees, Drug testing, Urine, Analysis, Drug abuse, Testing, Hair, Analysis, Employees, Drug use, Applications for positions, Substance abuse, Statistics

Summary:   "[Usain Bolt] remains years away from his running prime, with many experts predicting he will push the 100-m and 200-m records down further. If that happens, he will find himself hearing the d-word at practically every meet." (Maclean's) This article explores the record-breaking running times of Usain Bolt and the public scrutiny his physical achivements attract.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Runners (Sports), Track and field athletes, Human potential movement, Drug abuse, Testing, Kinesiology, World Anti-Doping Agency, Doping in sports, Timeline

Summary:   "More than a year has passed since the state implemented one of the world's most ambitious steroids testing programs at Texas high schools. The results so far: $6 million spent to test 45,193 student athletes, 19 of whom came up positive. That last number, depending on your perspective, either refutes the need for testing or validates it as a successful deterrent." (Dallas Morning News) This article examines the debate over whether school drug testing programs are effective in preventing drug use.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, High school athletes, High school students, Drug use, High schools, Steroids, Texas, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball's single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003." (New York Times) This article explores Sammy Sosa as the latest disclosure of several Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Baseball, Baseball players, Doping in sports, Major League Baseball, Sosa, Sammy, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing, Home runs (Baseball), Major League Baseball Players Association

Summary:   "The National Hockey League will push for tougher drug-testing, including robust out-of-competition controls, and is ready to embrace World Anti-Doping Agency standards, league commissioner Gary Bettman said on Saturday [May 30, 2009]." (Gazette (Montreal, Canada)) This article discusses the NHL decision to implement tougher drug-testing and the reaction of the NHL Players' Association.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Hockey, Hockey players, National Hockey League, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing, World Anti-Doping Agency

Summary:   "A few days after NASCAR [National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing] suspended Jeremy Mayfield indefinitely for failing a drug test, Mark Martin called Dr. David Black, who administers NASCAR's drug-testing policy. He wanted to make sure anti-inflammatory medication wouldn't get him a similar suspension. He was nervous. Every time a doctor prescribes Jeff Burton something, he calls Black. He doesn't want his reputation and his livelihood to take the blow that a positive test would deal it. Mayfield's suspension last week [May 9, 2009] was the first such suspension of a Sprint Cup driver. It's put into the spotlight NASCAR's year-old random testing policy. And with the sanctioning body's swift action—six hours after receiving Mayfield's final test results, NASCAR made the announcement—Martin and Burton wanted to make sure they were safe." (Orlando Sentinel) This article considers whether NASCAR's drug-testing policy is fair, noting that it is the "strictest and broadest in American professional sports. There is no NASCAR drivers union to negotiate terms of a drug-testing policy or intercede on an accused driver or crew member's behalf. Suspensions are indefinite and not appealable. There is also no complete list of banned substances for drivers; NASCAR can test for anything it wants."
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Automobile racing, Automobile racing drivers, Doping in sports, Stock car racing, Drug abuse, Testing, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing

Summary:   "Soon after Rashid Ramzi became an Olympic track and field champion at the 2008 Beijing Games, the accolades began pouring in. For winning the 1,500-meter race and Bahrain's first Olympic gold medal, he was welcomed home as a national hero. Fans greeted him with cheers. A private meeting with King Hamad of Bahrain was planned. For eight months, Ramzi enjoyed the financial gains and the honor that often accompanies Olympic greatness. But his hold on his precious Olympic gold medal could soon come to an end. Ramzi is one of six athletes--three from track and field, two from cycling and one from weight lifting--who failed tests for the blood-booster CERA in the recent reanalysis of blood samples collected at the Beijing Olympics." (New York Times) This article describes the constant battle by the International Olympic Committee to "catch cheaters before, during and even long after the Olympic Games have ended."
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, International Olympic Committee, Sports, Corrupt practices, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs. Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing. The effort comes as more Americans turn to these safety nets to ride out the recession. Poverty and civil liberties advocates fear the strategy could backfire, discouraging some people from seeking financial aid and making already desperate situations worse." (Clarksburg Exponent Telegram) This article explains why a growing number of states want to "implement drug testing as a condition" of receiving public assistance.
Subjects:  Insurance, Unemployment, Public welfare, Public welfare, Law and legislation, Recessions, State legislatures, Welfare recipients, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "Since Jan 1 [2009], Olympic-level athletes have had to schedule their daily availability--hour and place--three months in advance so drug testers can find them, according to new World Anti-Doping Agency rules. And violating those rules can have serious repercussions." (New York Times) This article explores the Anti-Doping Agency ruling requiring all Olympic athletes to be available daily for random drug testing.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Privacy, Privacy, Right of, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing, Olympics, Rules, World Anti-Doping Agency, Sports, Global impact

Summary:   "One could argue that some people--painters, fashion models, rock stars--perform better under the influence. But other jobs should go only to the perpetually sober. We don't want our chemical-weapons handlers to be pulling a Michael Phelps on the job, which is why employees in high-risk positions are subjected to random drug tests. But what about people who work in less perilous, if equally unpredictable, environments--say, with kids in public schools? Should teachers be randomly tested too?" (Time) In this article, the author explains why random drug tests for teachers are a bad idea.
Subjects:  Drug abuse, Employees, Drug testing, Privacy, Right of, Teachers, Conduct of life, Drug abuse, Testing, Employees, Drug use

Summary:  "Major League Baseball, which hoped to put an end to the steroid era with its drug-testing program and the commissioned Mitchell Report, instead enters spring training [2009] with yet another ominous cloud hovering. Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid and perhaps best player, tested positive for steroids—Primobolan and testosterone—during the 2003 season, four unnamed people told Sports Illustrated." (USA Today) This article considers whether Alex Rodriguez's legacy will be tarnished by allegations that the elite player used performance-enhancing drugs.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Baseball players, Doping in sports, Major League Baseball, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing, Rodriguez, Alex, Major League Baseball Players Association

Summary:  "By the tens of thousands, Texas student-athletes have been pulled out of class to urinate in a cup for the nation's largest high school steroids testing program. Boys and girls in all sports, from football to tennis to cross country, have been randomly selected. The results so far have found little to confirm fears that steroid use is a rampant problem. When the first 10,000 tests found only four positive results, critics declared the two-year program a waste of time and money. Now state lawmakers must decide whether to keep the $6 million program chugging along, scale it down or eliminate it." (Houston Chronicle) This article discusses the support and opposition to the testing program, and the reasons for each position.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, High school athletes, High school students, Drug use, Steroids, Teenagers, Drug use, Texas, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:  "Baseball authorized nearly 8 percent of its players to use drugs for ADHD last season, which allowed them to take otherwise banned stimulants. A total of 106 exemptions for banned drugs were given to major leaguers claiming attention deficit hyperactivity disorder from the end of the 2007 season until the end of the 2008 season, according to a report released Friday [Jan. 9, 2009] by the sport's independent drug-testing administrator. That's up from 103 therapeutic use exemptions (TUEs) for ADHD in 2007, according to figures cited by baseball officials before a congressional committee last year." (Newsday) This article addresses concerns about the large number of stimulant exemptions in Major League Baseball.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Baseball, Baseball players, Doping in sports, Drug utilization, Major League Baseball, Drug abuse, Testing, Attention-deficit disorder in adults

Summary:  "Some studies indicate that the use of anabolic steroids is in decline in high schools. A survey by the University of Michigan revealed that 2.2 percent of the nation's 12th graders admitted in 2007 that they had used steroids at least once, down from 4 percent in 2002. And school districts report more urgent problems with alcohol and recreational drugs like marijuana. Still, many antidoping experts said they believed the numbers on steroid use were significantly underreported, especially in sports like football that put a premium on strength." (New York Times) This article raises questions about the efficacy of "efforts to deter performance-enhancing drug use among high school athletes."
Subjects:  Anabolic steroids, Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Drug abuse, Study and teaching, High school athletes, High school students, Drug use, Teenagers, Drug use, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:  "Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that schools could randomly test students participating in sports and clubs, 7 percent of the nation's high schools and middle schools--4,200 of an estimated 59,364--have implemented random testing, mostly for drugs, according to a 2007 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. New Jersey has taken an aggressive approach, with 27 districts testing for drugs, as well as the state's high school athletic association." (New York Times) This article addresses concerns about random drug testing in high schools and raises questions about whether "random testing reduces student drug use."
Subjects:  High school students, Alcohol use, High school students, Drug use, High schools, Privacy, Right of, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:  "As the Grey Cup approaches, the CFL [Canadian Football League] remains the only major pro sports league in North America that doesn't test players for drugs. Both the league and the players' union say the situation will change, with each side recognizing drug testing will help the league's image, the players' health and the overall sense of fair play. But no one can say for sure how soon anything will happen." (Toronto Star) This article explains why the Canadian Football League has failed to implement a drug testing policy.
Subjects:  Athletes, Canada, Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Football, National Football League, Professional sports, Sports, Canada, Steroids, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "The sweat is still drying on Lance Armstrong's gaunt face when, with sunken eyes as blue as the cloudless sky, he sweeps through the front door of his home in the secluded hills of Austin, Texas. Armstrong offers a hand while balancing a pile of training gear on his arms. 'Sorry, I'm late,' he says. 'It's been a busy day.' He disappears as quickly as he arrived and I slide back on to the plush sofa of the vast room where I've been waiting. Huge paintings of minimalist pop art hang on the walls. Ed Ruscha's Speed Racer and Safe and Effective Medication echo the backdrop of cycling, cancer and doping allegations which have made Armstrong one of the world's most famous but controversial sportsmen." (The Guardian) This article presents an interview with Lance Armstrong about the allegations that the seven-time Tour de France winner used performance-enhancing drugs.
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Bicycle racing, Cyclists, Doping in sports, Erythropoietin, Sports, Corrupt practices, Armstrong, Lance, Cycling, Drug abuse, Testing, Tour de France (Bicycle race)

Summary:   "For Nadine Artemis and Ron Obadia, August [2008] began with plans for a family vacation in Minnesota. The vacation ended with the two Canadian citizens being led through Toronto's airport in handcuffs, locked up and separated from their baby. 'We were dumbfounded,' Artemis says. Police told them they could be facing years in prison for exporting narcotics, because 2.5 pounds of material found in their carry-on bag tested positive for hashish. 'All we knew was that we didn't have drugs.' They were telling the truth. They didn't have drugs. They had chocolate. The couple were caught up in what civil libertarians, public defenders and some narcotics experts say is a growing problem: the use of unreliable field drug-test kits as the basis to arrest innocent people on illegal drug charges." (USA Today) This article raises questions about the validity of drug-test kits.
Subjects:  Diagnostic reagents and test kits, Narcotics, Control of, Drug abuse, Testing, False arrest

Summary:   "Any athletes who thought they got away with doping at the Beijing Olympics shouldn't rest easy. The drug police are coming back." (Tennessean) This article discusses the International Olympic Committee's decision to "retest samples from the games to search for a new blood-boosting drug at the center of the latest Tour de France scandals. The move reflects the IOC's aggressive attempts to nab drug cheats not just during an Olympics, but weeks, months and even years later once new tests become available. Results and medals could be at stake."
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Beijing (China), Doping in sports, Erythropoietin, International Olympic Committee, Sports, Corrupt practices, Drug abuse, Testing, Tour de France (Bicycle race), World Anti-Doping Agency, Sports, Global impact

Summary:   "The back lot behind Barry's Plumbing doesn't look like a fitting place for one of sport's greatest sleuths to set up shop. The narrow alleyway is unmarked, as is the plain brick building--a former clothing manufacturing shop. Google Maps will not get you here. But then again, fame and fancy office space aren't what Don Catlin is after. It's illegal performance-enhancing drugs he's targeting." (Christian Science Monitor) This article discusses Don Catlin's accomplishments. Catlin is "one of the world's top antidoping researchers," but "despite his success as one of the cleverest cats in a Tom-and-Jerry pursuit of dopers, Catlin has become convinced that the paradigm on which he based his work for two decades is faulty: It's the clean athletes--not the dirty ones--who deserve his services."
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Doping in sports, Somatotropin, Drug abuse, Testing

Summary:   "In keeping with the grand scale of China's Olympic project, the Beijing Games will see the largest anti-doping operation ever mounted at a sporting event. For six months the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Beijing organising committee have been developing a plan that will see 1,000 officials collect 4,500 samples of blood and urine that will be transported under guard to laboratories in armoured cars usually employed to carry cash to Beijing's banks. This is anti-doping on a military scale, a multimillion-dollar operation designed to soak up the cynicism of the Olympic movement's global audience, not to mention its corporate partners, and demonstrate that the IOC is doing all it can to eradicate the scourge of drugs." (The Guardian) This article examines the limitations of drug testing and addresses the concern that "for all the testing [in Beijing], medals will still be won by cheats."
Subjects:  Athletes, Drug use, Beijing (China), Doping in sports, Sports, Corrupt practices, Drug abuse, Testing